Men's College Basketball
Drexel University 80, Rider University 62
LAWRENCEVILLE-The Broncs fell to 0-3 for the first time in 15 years, losing a 6am game Tuesday to Drexel in front of a standing room only crowd and a national television audience on ESPN.
"We're certainly disappointed," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. "It was a good opportunity for us today, playing on national television, in a great atmosphere, to get our season kick started, but we just didn't deliver. Drexel kind of wore us out."
The game was also Rider's third in four and a half days. "I think the better team won today, regardless of that," Dempsey said.
"The atmosphere is always great when we play here," said Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint. "It's exciting for the kids. I think Rider wore down in the second half. We knew they played Sunday night on the road and that was our plan, to wear them down."
"I'm sure the short rest factored in but I think it was more that we just didn't play well," Dempsey said. "We were ready and the adrenaline was good. I was hoping the national TV audience and the electricity in the building would give us the legs we needed."
The score was tied at 28-28 at the half before Drexel (1-0) out-scored Rider 10-2 to start the second half, eight points by Samme Givens, to give the Dragons a 38-30 lead. That was the 11th and final lead change of the game. Givens finished with 21 points, as did teammate Frantz Massenat, who is from Ewing and played at nearby Trenton Catholic. "My entire high school team was here today," Massenat said. "It was great."
"I think we came out in the second half not as focused to start the half as we needed to be," Dempsey said. "We had such good attention on Givens in the first half (8 points) and then we allowed him to take the game over, then we ended up chasing the game the rest of the half."
Trailing 60-42, Rider went on a 12-3 run, five points by junior Jonathon Thompson (Orlando, Fla./Jones), to cut the lead to 63-54 with 4:18 remaining, but that was as close as the Broncs could get. Thompson finished with seven points and a career-high eight rebounds in his first game of the season.
Senior Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) led the Broncs with 14 points and sophomore Anthony Myles (Dover, DE/Poly-Tech) added 13 points.
"The 6am start was a lot different before the game," Gadson said, "but once the game started it was just like any other game."
Rider sophomore Daniel Stewart (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann-Goretti) added 12 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth career 'double-double.' "Our focus was to work hard on the glass," Stewart said.
Holding a 63-54 lead, Drexel went on a 10-2 run to take a 73-56 lead with 1:51 remaining to win its season opener.
The Dragons out-scored Rider 10-2 over the final 4:11 of the first half to tie the score at 28-28 at intermission.
Trailing 18-16, Rider went on a 10-0 run, four points by Gadson, to take a 26-18 lead.
The first half saw seven ties and 10 lead changes.
The Broncs and Dragons are former East Coast Conference rivals. Rider and Drexel have now played 56 times with Drexel holding a slight 30-26 advantage in the series that began in 1956-57. Drexel has now won the last four meetings, including a four-point overtime game last year in Philadelphia. Drexel won by six points during the 2008-09 season at Rider and won by seven points in Philadelphia in 2007-08. Rider won in overtime by eight points in 2006-07 here in Alumni Gym.
Rider hosts the University of Pennsylvania Thursday evening and Howard University Monday night to complete the five games in 11 days stretch.
"I'm not alarmed (about the 0-3 start) at this point," Dempsey said. "I've been doing this long enough to know we will not be judged on the first four or five days of the season. It stinks to be 0-3, we've never been in this position. There is so much basketball to be played."
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